Another pedestrian hit on S.F.’s Sunset Boulevard

A female pedestrian was hit by a vehicle in a crosswalk Thursday afternoon as she tried to make her way across a dangerous stretch of roadway in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset neighborhood, police said.

The 20-year-old woman, who authorities have not identified, was hit at 2:38 p.m. as she crossed Sunset Boulevard westbound at Yorba Street, said Sgt. Danielle Newman, a San Francisco police spokeswoman.

The woman was taken to San Francisco General Hospital with serious injuries, according to a San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman.

The 25-year-old woman behind the wheel of the northbound vehicle remained at the scene and was cited by police for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

In February at the same intersection, a 15-year-old boy was hit and a 78-year-old man, Isaak Berenzon, was struck and killed. The 71-year-old driver who hit Berenzon was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.

City officials identified the dangerous section of roadway as one of the San Francisco’s “high-injury trouble areas” and have sought to make the busy six-lane thoroughfare safer.

Pedestrian advocates say the boulevard’s lack of traffic signals at every intersection and overall design invite freeway-like habits from the 35,000 drivers that head down Sunset every day.

In February, Paul Rose, a spokesman for San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, said Yorba Street would get a traffic signal by the end of 2015.

Currently, a three-block stretch from Sloat Boulevard to Vicente Street is signal-free, except for a pedestrian crossing at Yorba that flashes a yellow light warning drivers to slow down when a pedestrian pushes a button to walk.

According to data provided by San Francisco police, about a quarter of the pedestrians injured on Sunset from 2005 to 2011 were hit on this three-block stretch.